U.S. cuts off aid to U.N. group

The United States will stop paying $80 million in dues and voluntary contributions to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in response to the body’s vote Monday to grant membership to the Palestinian Authority, but the fight over U.S. funding policy may not be over yet.

UNESCO voted 107-14 in favor of granting status to the Palestinians, triggering existing U.S. laws that prohibit American support of U.N. agencies that give the Palestinian Authority membership.

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Still, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland suggested the administration could look for a way to rewrite or work around the law.

“We have to work with Congress because these are legislative constraints,” Nuland told reporters at a Monday briefing. “If we are going to move forward in a legislative way, we have to gain their support.”

The funding cutoff could have far-reaching effects for American tech companies — such as Apple, Google and Microsoft — and movie studios that use UNESCO to open markets in the developing world and rely on an associated entity, the World Intellectual Property Organization, to police international disputes over music, movies and software.

It’s a tough bind for the administration: The White House and State Department support UNESCO’s mission, but there’s little chance that Congress will rewrite a law that is supported by the large bloc of pro-Israel lawmakers. Indeed, there seems to be a split at State between those who are mortified by the prospect of cutting off funding for UNESCO and those who understand the political peril of angering pro-Israel forces.

Pro-Israel lawmakers mobilized pre-emptively last week, as Reps. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Democrats’ campaign committee, and Tom Cole, a former chairman of the House Republicans’ campaign committee, wrote a letter to colleagues demanding enforcement of the funding prohibition.

“We cannot change this law, and we hope you will join us in co-signing this bipartisan letter to stand by this policy,” Israel and Cole wrote. “Congress must send a powerful message that everything is done to block full membership of the Palestinian Authority to UNESCO, the U.N. Security Council and other U.N. agencies. Such a move would be detrimental to Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East, as well as U.N. programs around the globe.”

Israel and Cole wrote a similar letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to do everything in her power to avert the admission of the Palestinian Authority to UNESCO. But the State Department’s efforts to get the rest of the world to block Palestinian membership in UNESCO fell short despite a full-court press that included delivering America’s official position in capitals across the globe.

The potential consequences for American businesses are important enough that the State Department invited representatives of about two dozen technology and pharmaceutical companies and associations to participate in a discussion of the matter in Foggy Bottom on Monday afternoon.

“Even as we approach this situation diplomatically, the Department of State and our U.S. government partners would like to invite you to a discussion on the current state of play at UNESCO, as well as the ramifications of the Palestinian bid for membership,” reads a copy of the invitation obtained by POLITICO. Invitees include Apple, Google, Microsoft, the Motion Picture Association of America, PhRMA and the Recording Industry Association of America.

Nuland was noncommittal when asked whether Assistant Secretary Esther Brimmer would press the companies to lobby Congress for a fix, explaining that the State Department wanted to open a dialogue “about how to protect their interests going forward.”

But while American businesses could suffer from the decision to cut off funding, it is unlikely that any of them would pick a fight with Israel.

“You could literally blow me over with a feather if one of those guys came out with a public position,” said one tech industry source.